Blade Runner (1982)

	Directed by: Ridley Scott	COUNTRY USA GENRE Science Fiction NORWEGIAN TITLE Blade Runner RUNNING TIME 117 minutes
	Produced by: Michael Deeley
	Written by (based on "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick): Hampton Fancher David Peoples

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Rick Deckard	Harrison Ford
Roy Batty	Rutger Hauer
Rachael	Sean Young	½
Gaff	Edward James Olmos	½
Bryant	M. Emmet Walsh	½
Pris	Daryl Hannah	½
J.F. Sebastian	William Sanderson
Leon Kowalski	Brion James	½
Eldon Tyrell	Joe Turkel	-
Zhora Salome	Joanna Cassidy	-
Hannibal Chew	James Hong	-

Review

The particular brand of dark, cyberpunkish dystopian futurism Ridley Scott created with Blade Runner may not have been innovative in a fundamental sense, but it started a new trend in science fiction filmmaking and re-popularised the pessimistic man-against-machine motif championed by writers such as Stanislaw Lem and Philip K. Dick during the mid-20th century. The script was loosely based on Dick's novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, but Blade Runner is much less preoccupied with Dick's philosophical underpinnings than with film noir traditions and nods to the hardboiled detective genre. Visually, Blade Runner is astounding – Scott really creates a world here; an exhaustive, lived-in microcosm that is a more palpable and organic than what had usually been seen in the genre up to that point. It has more in common with George Miller's Mad Max than with earlier entries in the sci-fi genre, and both Harrison Ford's hero Rick Deckard and Rutger Hauer's antagonist Roy Batty are emblematic, larger-than-life characters who embody this world more than they represent human psychology or subtle traits. Ford's phlegmatic, stiff performance makes you wonder if the replicants are really the more human ones. An enjoyable fable – except for Ford's lifeless voiceover narration.